Western Power says 39,000 properties across WA were left without electricity due to pole-top fires
This image shows damage to a power pole in Melville. (Supplied: Western Power)
In short:
Tens of thousands of WA homes and businesses were left without power after outages across the state on Saturday.
Western Power said the blackouts were caused by pole-top fires triggered by drizzly rain.
What's next:
The utility says it's working to restore power as quickly as possible.
Tens of thousands of residents across WA's central and south-west coast woke up without power on Saturday following outages across the state.
Electricity was cut to about 39,000 homes and business in the Perth metropolitan area, the Midwest and Wheatbelt regions, with Western Power crews working to restore services throughout the day.
More than 7,000 customers were without power in Doubleview, Innaloo, Karrinyup, Wembley Downs, Scarborough, Trigg and Woodlands, but that number had been reduced to just over 300 by midday.
This map shows the power outages affecting WA at 2:30pm on Saturday. (Supplied)
It took until just after 1pm to restore electricity to affected homes in the southern suburbs of Postans, Medina, Parmelia, Kwinana Beach, Naval Base, Kwinana Town Centre, Hope Valley, Calista and Orelia.
At 3.30pm Western Power said about 16,700 properties were still without power.
In a statement, the utility said it appreciated the fact that outages cause inconvenience and frustration.
Western Power is working to restore power as quickly as possible. (Supplied: Western Power)
It said crews were working to safely restore power as quickly as possible.
The outages were caused by drizzly weather overnight which triggered pole-top fires across the network.
"All available crews are working as quickly and safely as possible to make hazards safe and are assessing poles for replacement," a Western Power representative said.
"The priority is attending to any safety hazards before commencing any repairs and restoration.
"Where pole replacements are required, each pole change can take between 4-8 hours, depending on the type of pole, and unfortunately some customers may be without power until later in the day."
Western Power is urging people to stay at least 8 metres away from fallen power lines and to contact them about any hazard so its crews can respond.
Safety paramount, premier says
WA Premier Roger Cook said pole-top fire outages made it difficult to quickly restore electricity, given the safety risks.
"You have to asses them first to ensure there's no ongoing element of risk but we are bringing those homes back online as soon as possible," Mr Cook said.
Premier Roger Cook said it was important restoration work was carried out safely. (ABC News: Courtney Withers )
"Some years ago we used to have a program of cleaning live pole tops in the lead-up to this period — that led to the death of a worker, so we need to make sure we can continue to do this but in a way that doesn't endanger lives."
He said there were several outages across the south-west grid, some caused by the poll-top fires and others by ongoing bushfires threatening the Great Southern and Wheatbelt regions.
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